Rogers offers pledge of confidence

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers' renewed $25 million pledge to UNLV shows a renewed confidence in the state's higher education system, regents said Monday.

The millionaire business owner of Sunbelt Communications reinstated the pledge Monday, saying he's confident the Nevada Legislature will fund another system project, Nevada State College at Henderson, which Rogers believes is critical to UNLV's success.

"I think he feels a lot better about all of the institutions than he did a few months ago," Regent Bret Whipple said.

Regent Steve Sisolak said the planned donation illustrates how much the system has improved under Rogers' reign.

"I'm happy that he has a lot more confidence in the board and our ability to govern the system effectively, and I think that's reflected in his renewed commitment," Sisolak said.

Showing t confidence was one of the intentions of his gift and a $2 million pledge he announced last week to Nevada State College at Henderson, Rogers said. Although he declined to comment on whether there was any political strategy involved in either donation, Rogers did say he hoped both donations would show lawmakers and donors the state's higher education system was worth their financial investment.

That's a contrast to Rogers' sentiment in August, when he sent a letter to UNLV President Carol Harter revoking his March 3, 2003, pledge.

Rogers never officially announced why he was pulling the pledge, but privately told Sisolak, Whipple and other system officials that he was frustrated with the dysfunction of the system and the Board of Regents.

Rogers also publicly criticized regents in several memos. Rogers said the Board of Regents has moved to correct most of the problems he pointed out, and that he is very "comfortable" with the board and the whole system, and "very bullish on (promoting) its potential." Rogers' pledge is slated to help kick off a $400 million to $500 million capital campaign at UNLV and is designed to entice more donors into the campaign, he said.

"It calls for a lot of people to do a lot of things to put a lot of money in," Rogers said of his pledge, but he declined to comment on the details. Rogers said he and his wife, Beverly, decided to "hold off" on the pledge in August because they wanted to "wait and see about a couple of things," including whether or not Nevada State College at Henderson was likely to receive the funding it needed.

"Thirty-five million is a lot of money to begin with," Rogers said of his previous donations to the University and Community College System of Nevada institutions. "We didn't want to invest in UNLV and UNR any more money unless we were pretty much assured they would be major research universities. They cannot be major research universities unless we develop a Nevada State College system."

Both universities need to be able to raise their admission standards to promote a higher level of scholarly research, Rogers said, and to do that the state needs to provide an alternative means of enabling Nevada residents to pursue bachelor's degrees through a state college system.

Increasing the research output at the universities leads to increased research dollars coming into the institutions, Rogers said, and in turn helps draw more high-tech companies into the state.

Rogers pledged the $2 million to Nevada State College on the condition that Nevada lawmakers fund the remaining $9 million needed to fund the college's first liberal arts building. He said he will not personally donate seed money to the college until he is sure of the Legislature's support.

Recent conversations with lawmakers have made him confident that will happen, Rogers said, although he hasn't gone so far as to count votes.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno and Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Harter said she was very pleased with Rogers' pledge and believed it would "inspire other people to step up to the plate with really substantial gifts." Harter said Rogers' initial decision to pull the gift did not affect fund-raising in the short term. She said the university has had a banner year but the move could have affected the capital campaign in the long term.

"If Jim didn't have faith that UNLV could be a major research university than I think a lot of others would have lost faith too," Harter said.